Ethics of Environment and Development: Global Challenge, International Response - Softcover

9780816512638: Ethics of Environment and Development: Global Challenge, International Response

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816512639 ISBN 13: 9780816512638

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1991

How can we make ethical decisions about our environment in the face of increasingly conflicting needs and opinions? This collection of essays offers a wide range of viewpoints representing many of the world's cultural and religious traditions to help readers better make such determinations for themselves. The authors seek to clarify the ethical principles surrounding the concept of "sustainable development." They provide a synoptic overview of the contemporary moral challenge of sustainable development and the similarities and differences in its interpretation throughout the world. In bringing together contributions by authorities in environmental ethics and developmental ethics, and by those who are addressing these questions from the perspectives of religion and humanistic philosophy, the book develops the concept of sustainability as the ethical approach to reconciling the needs of environmental conservation with economic development.

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Review:

"Voices from around the world speak here about values needed if we are to build more sustainable societies. Western authors who develop criteria for long-term sustainability are joined by writers on Buddhist and Islamic environmental ethics, traditional African land ethics, related ideas in socialist humanism, and more. . . . One is left, after reading the book, with the sense that much of what Westerners call a 'new' environmental ethic would be called the 'old' pre-Western land ethic by an African, a Buddhist, or a Taoist. This realization may be essential if 'sustainable development' efforts are to avoid layering over traditional societies with yet one more Western-conceived version of progress. . . . the book [performs] an important service in bringing so many different voices, and land ethics, together in one place. The juxtaposition of perspectives invites stretching one's mind." --Earth Ethics"A landmark book in bringing together contributors...to focus on development as primarily an ethical issue. . . . an important book that deserves to be read and considered by all those involved in developmental decision-making." --Agriculture and Human Values"A pathbreaking effort to point out the importance of ethics for the construction of a new paradigm of sustainable development. . . . a timely piece of work." --Global Environmental Change

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